- •What is management? What is the difference between a manager and a leader?
- •Consider three categories of the management style.
- •What is marketing? What are the responsibilities of marketers?
- •What is Macro Environment? Consider how it affects all aspects of business.
- •Describe the microenvironmental forces. Consider how they affect all aspects of business.
- •What does a swot analysis identify? Why is it important to carry out a swot analysis?
- •What is international marketing? Describe the factors of prioritizing foreign markets for company’s entry and growth.
- •What does market segmentation identify? How does it work?
- •Define the difference between segmentation in b2b market and that of b2c market.
- •Describe a company's marketing strategies.
- •What is market research? Why do companies do it? Overview the market research process.
- •Give a description of the market research methods.
- •Primary and secondary research
- •Primary research
- •Secondary research
- •Quantitative and qualitative research
- •Quantitative research
- •Qualitative research
- •What is the role of the marketing mix? Describe the Ps and Cs of the marketing mix.
- •What does the term “a product” cover? Give a product description and features using a particular example.
- •Describe the stages of plc.
- •What is branding? What is the difference between a product and a brand? Speak about brand values.
- •What is the aim of promotion? Describe the elements of the promotion mix.
- •Speak about advertising as one of the promotional tools.
- •What is the difference between Personal selling and Sales promotion?
- •What are the advantages and the disadvantages of Public Relations? Why do marketers tend to underuse it?
- •Why are pricing decisions so important?
- •What are the fundamentals of the supply chain management?
- •What are the current issues related to logistics?
- •Illustrate how people contribute to the development of an organization.
- •What do you know about motivation marketing?
- •Describe the factors of the physical evidence.
- •Evaluate both positive and negative aspects that can be associated with physical evidence.
- •Explain the various attributes that comprise packaging.
- •How has packaging developed over the past 100 years?
- •Describe the key types of processes that are used within the marketing concept.
Give a description of the market research methods.
The type of information you want to gather about your customers, market or competitors will influence the research methods you choose. There are different ways to gather information (from primary or secondary sources) and different types of information to gather (quantitative and qualitative). You may use any combination of these research approaches to get the results you need.
Primary and secondary research
Primary and secondary research relate to the way you gather information.
Primary research
Primary research (or field research) gathers original information directly for your purpose, rather than being gathered from published sources. Primary research includes:
surveys
direct observations
interviews and focus groups that are developed and conducted by you or your researcher.
Primary research gives you control over the type of questions you ask and information you gather. Primary research results can be extremely valuable; however, they can also be much more time-consuming and costly to gather than secondary research.
You may choose to use primary research methods once you have conducted secondary research to determine what information already exists.
Secondary research
Secondary research (or desk research) gathers existing information through available sources. Secondary research examples include:
information on the internet
existing market research results
existing data from your own stock lists and customer database
information from agencies such as industry bodies, government agencies, libraries and local councils.
Secondary research allows you to make the most of existing information about your market. However, it can be a challenge to find the information you really need. Learn more about different research resources for business and industry.
You may use secondary research to get an initial understanding of your market. It is often faster to analyse than primary data because, in many cases, someone else may have already started analysing it. However, when using secondary research be careful how you interpret it, as it may have been collected for a different purpose or from a market segment that isn't relevant to your business. Also make sure that any secondary information isn't out-of-date, as the market can change quickly and this will affect your results.
As well as understanding your market, you can also use secondary research to examine factors inside your business, such as sales figures and financial records.
Quantitative and qualitative research
Quantitative and qualitative research defines the type of information you gather.
Quantitative research
Quantitative research gathers numerical data. Quantitative research includes:
surveys on customer return frequency
sales figures
industry product sales numbers
online or phone questionnaires
financial trends.
You can use this approach to identify the size of your market and how much it might be worth to your business, and to find areas for sales growth. Quantitative research can also help you understand the demographics of customers, such as their age and gender.
Quantitative research often produces a lot of statistics. These are useful as an overview of your market, but make sure you don't rely solely on statistics in your research. Consider all of the information you have. For example, the 'average' price your target market suggested it would pay for a product could be distorted if a few a participants selected a very high amount (i.e. not reflecting the high number who would not pay that much).